Choosing a Web Marketing Company – Part Two

Let’s continue with the questions we should ask before hiring a web marketing company:

• Do they use only white hat SEO techniques? Stay away from any company using black hat SEO. As the name suggests, black hat SEO employs a number of dishonest tricks to get your website ranked. Where these techniques may have worked well a year or so ago, Google has now got wise and built their algorithms to beat the black SEO arts! This type of SEO can also get your site banned.

• How do they build links? Backlinks are extremely important to the ranking of your website. If your links are coming from link farms you could face heavy penalties from Google. Make sure your SEO company builds links in a reputable manner.

• Make your own impression of a company. If your gut instinct tells you something isn’t right then it’s a good idea to move on. If a company can’t sell itself properly from the start, give you a good honest price, or tell you their strategy, then you need to choose another company. Sometimes it is difficult to avoid being misled, but when you learn a bit more about SEO and the questions to ask, you can avoid this.

• A high quote does not guarantee you will get high quality. The larger a firm gets, the more it will usually charge, but some of the smaller local SEO companies can give you the same results for much less. A company that works inefficiently might need to charge high prices to make up for their shortfall in getting work completed.

• Cheap can work out more expensive. Remember the saying about paying peanuts? Well this can be true when hiring an SEO company or professional. Professional SEO companies work for realistic prices and will give you an itemized quote that you can understand and consider at your leisure. Any company that pushes you into making a decision should be avoided.

• Choose an SEO company that offers SEO packages. Most SEO companies offer their services as a package these days. This allows companies to budget for their SEO marketing and to avoid being tied into any expensive contracts.

• Ask some tricky questions your SEO company if you can. Don’t worry if you are not an expert on SEO. There are still a number of questions you can ask.

For instance you might want to ask them what search engines they will automatically submit your website to. Scammers will always try to impress you by blinding you with big figures. The answer you are looking for is ‘we don’t do automatic submissions’.

Another question you can ask is whether they can place you in the top 10 websites for keywords you have chosen. This is a bit of a trick question, but a good company will suggest that they find the most relevant and prolific keywords for you.

• Ask if they offer subscription services. SEO needs to be tackled on a daily basis to ensure your ranking does not slide. A good company will ensure they are tackling your SEO on a daily basis and monitoring the results. When choosing an SEO package, make sure you choose one that offers post-optimization services. This maintenance will ensure you always have some SEO assistance and that you are not left alone to maintain your SEO. You might also want to see if the company offers additional services such as Pay per Click or social media marketing. These are all services you might need in the future.

These are some of the most important questions and areas you can investigate when choosing a web marketing company or professional. Any SEO company that can be trusted will only be too happy to answer your questions.